Night of the Phantoms!

Halloween is officially here! AJ's version of the spooky holiday, dubbed "Night of the Phantoms" has bombarded Jamaa yesterday around 3;00 a.m. Fog, jack-o-laterns, green goo, and shadows spread across the land, while eerie music sends shivers up jammers' spines. (click on a pic to enlarge)

  

Rare Pirate Hook + Rare Lionfish Armor

Today, there has been much speculation on whether or not this RIM will be super-valuable in the future, because it is underwater. Sadly, this is for members-only so I can't stock up at all ;-; But, it is at a reasonable 650 gems price, with an interesting green-and-orange tone. For some reason, this reminds me of green cheese :P

On a slightly unrelated note, when I went to go see what it looked like, I ran into a shark, who wanted to know where I got my non-member trident. He even offered a black spike, but then he said he traded it away, and then he said he didn't, and then he finally realized his did. He and another friend goofily made a big deal about "crying underwater." 

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And what a coincidence, here we come to the first underwater rare ever!

It’s called Rare Lionfish Armor, coming originally in Bahari Bay! It was just 300 gems, members-only. It’s first release was on February 27, 2012. Then, it showed the whole pair, in different colors and no rare tag.

Then, in July 2012, AJHQ changed the appearance with an added rare tag, and just showing one flipper. Since then, they can be won in underwater Adventures, but mysteriously, there have no rare tag.

Three Den Items You Never Noticed

Today, I was exploring Blimpmaster's den (he's a mod on the AJ community), and noticed several peculiar den items.

 Here, we have a caution sign. Not very interesting, huh? Wait until you click on it: 

 

Aliens come and steal the rocks!

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Next, here's a sign that says 'do not press' the button. Obviously, all of us are gonna click on the red button.

An odd shadow beings to appear, and then an anvil drops down (I believe this is called a 'Wacky Item,' from the April Fools' party).

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Finally, remember those epic plushies? The big, colorful ones with the AJ logo on them? Look what happens when you click on them:

Poof! They turn into little balls with their animal's footprints on them!

How to Make Border Around Text

I think I finally have some time to blog, so today I will show you a very handy tutorial!

I think that making a big, thick border around the text in a design is one of the most important things in graphic designing. It makes it look cleaner and helps the words pop out. Especially if the background of your design matches the color of the text.

Now Photoshop has some quick, one-click way of doing that, but for those of you who use free editing programs, here's my way. It take awhile, and sometimes the borders don't come out as clean, but it's worth it.

I found this way when I was learning how to make shadows behind the text, and the method is very similar.

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1. open up your designing software (I am using Canva for this) and make your background first--you'll be doing the text last.

2.  Write you text (very important, make sure you center you text exactly where you want it, changing it after you make the border will be very tedious!) I highly suggest using a thick font, or else the border won't overlap with the copies right:

3. Now borders can be any color, so color the text you want the border color to be (I suggest a color that is in contrast with the text and the background). Also the border goes first before the main text.

Here we have a black border I will use:

4. Make several copies of the border-text (there should be a button where you can just click "copy." For PicMonkey, right-click or use two fingers to click the mouse. A small menu will come up; look down and click "duplicate"). Make sure they're the exact same size and color. 

5. One by one, overlap them carefully. Make sure on each copy, it overlaps the previous by just a little bit of the edge. 

This is what it will look like now after you have overlapped you first copy:

You'll probably need a copy for the left side of the text, one for the right, two for the top and two for the bottom (you'll need the extra one at the top/bottom because you just made the text two times wider by putting the copies on the side.)

Although don't be surprised if you need more. Make and overlap as many copies as need to make sure the edges of the text line up and aren't jagged.

This is what it should look like:

Finally, you can out on the real text! Make one last copy, but this time, change the color so it's the one you want (I suggest a lighter color for a darker border and a darker color for a lighter border).

Then, position the real text on top the crazy mess of border copies. (to make it looked centered, you may need to add some more copies still.

The final result should look something like this:

Different fonts will produce different results, but the thicker the font with less space is always best. Also, the border does have to be exact. Sometime you might be looking for a more rugged, worn type-look, so you can use less border copies. Here's an example: (the border almost resembles pixels even)

I'm gonna use this method really soon in making a blog header for Halloween, so stay tuned!

Aquarium Den!

Okay, so I missed out on doing the the RIM for yesterday, but I just found out about a real cool Play Wild app! (click on a pic to enlarge)

 

Lemurs and a New Adventure!

And this appears to be a day late, but let's get to it. First my membership just expired (cri), and it may take awhile to get another one, so no more fancy screenshots showing everything . . . well anyways, here's he latest Jamaa Journal: (click on a pic to enlarge)

Bee Outfit and Clothing Store Glitch

Today, I noticed the bee-themed clothes were back for sale. I decided to use my cute little bunny and make an outfit (how do you rate it???) There's also a beehive hat, but that's a different story . . .

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I was looking at the AJ Google+ community again, and noticed a member post about a glitch. It's super-simple and not exactly useful, but it's interesting. It doesn't do much at all so I doubt it's one AJHQ will patch up anytime soon.

First you just go to any clothing store and click on an item.

Then you just click the blue next page arrow. The item that was located in the same spot before will atomically be lit up, but you won't be wearing it. You'll still have the other item on.

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And finally, we see that the summer carnival is gone; it's nowhere to be found under the party list . . . or is it? Since it's the day before Thursday, it might be completely gone tomorrow, but you can still spend your tickets and play a some last games. Go to Jamaa Township -- or wherever you see the blue banners -- and click on the flagpole that says "Summer Carnival is Leaving!" You'll instantly be transported there!

Rare AJ Wristband + Rare Fox Hat

Doing this on a phone so don't mind any typos I make ;)

Today, on September 12, 2016, a really cool rare came out. It is for all jammers (the last nm rare was in May), and steers away from the conventional pastel-yellow-pink-and-purple hue. It costs 900 gems, and can be found on the twelth page, first box. It also looks more safari-like than the others, don't ya think?

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Then, bam! These, I think, are probably the most famous rares, second from the spikes. They were here during beta testing, but originally members-only and at surprisingly low 150 gems. It was taken away sometime in 2011, but then re-released on February 20, 2012, with the new rare tag. It costed 1,250 gems and came in different colors, and was even for non-members! 

Legend has it that another version came out in June of 2014 for the Freedom Party. They say it was colored white, with a red tail tip and red buttons sewn with navy stitching. It is the only fox hat without the rare tag, but I have never, ever seen one. But I’m sure some jammer has one stashed away.

9/11

Free, Professional Editing Programs

Okay, so I was kinda late on getting the Saturday Commissions post out, so instead I'm gonna talk about graphic-making. You've heard of Photoshop, right? It's basically a graphic designer's dream come true. You can crop around images in a single click, put outlines and shadows around text, and change its texture. That's all in one program, except it's not free. It can range from about ten bucks a month.

It's a good option if you want super-duper high-quality, but if you're willing to earth awhile, there are many free programs that can make just as professional looking edits.

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This one is my favorite when making transparent backgrounds. It may look kinda heap at first glance, but LunaPic has a nice set of tools, you can even make something appear as if it were made from stained glass or pixels! If you're using this as a giant bucket or image cropper, I suggest that you have a fast computer and/or internet connection. Because of its slightly-meager design, you have to click aah area several times, and it reloads the page every time you make a change. If you uploaded a previous picture, you'll also have to clear the history. But you don't have to pay for any of it!

Sometimes (though it's rare), LunaPic will not read the color black correctly; like if you want to crop around a face with big, black eyes, it'll add little white dots inside of them. I've tried several things, but nothing seems to fix the problem. That's when I turn to "Edit Photos for Free." Like the other, it is completely free, but can even make GIF's, typography, and other goodies. When making a transparent background with this, you use the green marker to make a rough outline inside the area you wanna keep and the red marker for the area you don't.

Canva is my favorite for putting together all the graphics and making something from them. It's free, but has a large selection of cool fonts, lines, borders, and neat swirls. It has a simple, easy-to-use design, and is easy to control. You can change the background and has many canvases already with the dimensions you need (easy for video thumbnails and such). All you have to do is drag-and-drop, and from time-to-time a grid pops up so you know where to center your text exactly. It can even make each letter of a text a different color! It has more free features than PicMonkey, but you can't upload your own fonts for free (a problem if you want to make a text with the AJ font). 

This one seems to be the most popular, even though I find the controls a bit hard to use. However, it is filled with many tools, you can even change the texture look on your design (like make  something look like as if it were made from paper, sand, space, or even water). It comes with a few nice graphics, and I like the realistic bird and insect ones. And if all else fails when trying to make a transparent background, you can use it to zoom in on your picture, and tediously draw a line using the eraser tool to cut it out. (Though I highly suggest using this feature only as a last resort after you've made a rough cut out of it before). Unlike Canva, you can upload fonts or free.

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So, these are the editors I like and use. I'm sure there are several others, as it's up to personal opinion on which one is the best! (Plus doing a paragraph-long review one acc would take too long :P ) To sum it up, if you're going for free programs, I highly suggest using multiple ones. It may take awhile, all that downloading and changing, but as a graphic designer, it is worth it.

Weird Play Wild Stuff I've Noticed

Just . . . stuff.

Lemurs and Fennec Foxes Arrive in 3D

Sorry for this late post! Today was kinda busy, and I was helping another friend design a blog. Anyway, it looks like AJHQ is putting Play Wild first! Today, they released animal lemurs and pet fennec foxes! (click on pic to enlarge)

The lemur is currently the main star in the sapphire shop, costing 150 gems.